


One Weakness

by Nebulad



Series: Whiskey Molotov [25]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mild Nuka World Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 02:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7958269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He should’ve seen it coming— raiding didn’t usually come all at once, and Drey was gunna be a hard case. She was tough, but didn’t really have the same life experience as a lot of them there. She was the hero, they were the people that saw people get fucked up when the hero fucked off. She didn’t get helplessness, what it could do to a person, so of course she stopped to help the crazy fuck with those stupid ass Cappy glasses instead of ignoring her like everyone else was.</p><p>“It’s on our way,” she said, putting them on and making a face at him.</p><p>“It’s <i>dumb,</i> boss.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Weakness

Boss didn’t like Vaults.

He knew enough from Mags and Audrey combined to piece together why— the human her had been on ice, with the synth her implanted with all the fucked up memories about it— but it didn’t really seem like it was gunna be an issue. To his knowledge, there weren’t no vaults in Nuka World which was half the problem right there. The Vault-Tec area in the Galactic Zone was a bit of a surprise, but didn’t seem to affect her as strongly as he’d expected.

Then Sierra fucking Petrovita had to show up with that Cappy shit.

In fairness she’d got there before the boss, hanging around by the fountain for _days._ Colter just let her— said as long as she was buying shit it made no difference to him— and none of the gangs had gone out of their way to shoot her as of Audrey’s rise to power. She just sort of existed and snooped around walls for no reason, until the boss decided she was gunna help her out.

He should’ve seen it coming— raiding didn’t usually come all at once, and Drey was gunna be a hard case. She was tough, but didn’t really have the same life experience as a lot of them there. She was the hero, they were the people that saw people get fucked up when the hero fucked off. She didn’t get helplessness, what it could do to a person, so of course she stopped to help the crazy fuck with those stupid ass Cappy glasses instead of ignoring her like everyone else was.

“It’s on our way,” she said, putting them on and making a face at him.

“It’s _dumb,_ boss.”

“So? Nisha gunna send Disciples after me for having fun?” She slid them back into her pack and grabbed his wrist, headed squarely for Kiddie Kingdom. So all right, she liked dicking around— at least it still meant she had the fucking sense to do what the gangs wanted on a tight fucking schedule.

Kiddie Kingdom (after getting the creepy fucking ghoul magician to fuck off) went to Mason. They found Vault-Tec and the Galactic Zone next, handing it over to Nisha. Bottling Plant went to Mags, Mason got the Safari (and Cito), and Nisha got the Gulch. Trouble was brewing around the Operators, who were openly giving Audrey shit. She did her best to shove them back in line, but Gage figured the damage was done— it was just a matter of when they made their move.

So finding all the Cappy letters was kind of like… a relief, in some weird way. Instead of just sitting around and waiting for Mags and William to decide on the terms of the explosion, they were gunna get shit done— and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious about the door no one had opened since they got here. He wasn’t gunna say shit, of course, because that would be admitting that the stupid Cappy hunt hadn’t been the pain in the ass he was expecting, but… well, he casually took a look around the Nuka guy’s office too. Just to be helpful.

Audrey, of course, opened up the bookshelf because you couldn’t keep her out of anything. He liked that— he liked watching her pick locks and slam away at keyboards because she never failed, never broke a pick, never locked herself out of a terminal. Once she got her hands on something it was just a matter of time.

The bookshelf opened up into an elevator, which opened up into the private vault of the dick who created the whole obnoxious park. As soon as the entrance came into view, Audrey just froze up. If there was anyone important watching he might’ve shuffled her along or something, but Petrovita just ploughed forward and so Gage had a few seconds to decide how he was gunna handle this. He knew he was shit with this whole… _together_ thing. So far his biggest contribution to their suddenly close quarters relationship had been not tensing up when she flopped down beside him for the night.

So he took a deep breath, because he’d rather be braced for this even if he kind of didn’t think she’d laugh at him. “Hey boss?” he asked, trying to sound casual and almost pulling it off.

“Yeah?”

“So… I was thinking…” _fuck_ he had to spit this whole thing out before his mind went blank, “I just— figured you don’t like vaults too much.” She turned and grinned at him like she was kind of freaking out.

“Yeah, maybe we won’t conquer the great underground,” she said, her arms stiff at her sides.

“No complaints from me,” he assured her, then shuffled over a bit closer. “Was thinking though that for as long as we’re down here…” He reached out and brushed his fingers against the palm of her hand and _christ_ he was a _fucking_ raider, what was wrong with him? One time he’d bashed a guy’s head off a table for talking through a song he liked, why did this have to be the one fucking thing…

Suddenly her fingers were wound around his and she had a fucking death grip on his hand— didn’t really matter, didn’t really even hurt— and tentatively took a few steps forward. “I hate vaults,” she admitted quietly, like he didn’t know. “I _fucking_ hate vaults.” Audrey dragged him down by his chestpiece (with her other hand) and kissed him, because who the fuck was gunna notice but Petrovita? Course, he was the only one concerned about people seeing— raiders were shitheads who jumped at weakness, and if he wasn’t fucking weak for this whole arrangement…

“Glad to be of service, boss,” he said, letting himself be guided over to where Sierra was _vibrating_ waiting for them to catch up. The Disciples might catch wind of some shit that was none of their business if the boss didn’t think to let go of his hand once they were _out_ , but he was starting to think that it wouldn’t even matter if everyone knew because nothing phased Audrey.

Besides vaults, of course.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and I had something else planned for today but it's also my birthday and I'm in a food coma so I didn't have the energy to finish and revise the whole mess.
> 
> 2) They're holding haaaaaands. Go ahead and give me a big tough raider guy Bethesda, I'm gunna make him hold hands with the SoSu because no one else in this accursed fandom will.
> 
> 3) So Gage and Hancock's romances are super similar, like to the point where I was picking out lines that were precisely Hancock's lines. I'm not sure why they picked this direction but they did, so in order to differentiate between the two I'm choosing to focus less on low self-esteem based on the way Gage believes he's lived his life poorly, and more on how he's avoided close and trusting relationships due to his life being as fucked up as it's been and so suddenly he's got a crush on Sole and has no idea how the fuck to handle it because how do people that aren't gunna shank you in your kidneys while you sleep??
> 
> Also highkey, he was bugged for me for the first _forever_ of the romance where I thought he had no Lover's Embrace dialogue, then a friend of mine ([who also writes amazing fallout fic](http://mistressofsquirrels.tumblr.com)) was like no he definitely has dialogue?? So I dismissed and rehired him and now it's firing and I love him please send help.


End file.
